To celebrate Vikings Live, we have replaced our Roman alphabet with the runic alphabet used by the Vikings, the Scandinavian ‘Younger Futhark’. The ‘Younger Futhark’ has only 16 letters, so we have used some of the runic letters more than once or combined two runes for one Roman letter.

Rikan and Shikan had performed together in
their youth, but as adults the rivalry between them was fierce.
Once Rikan became a troupe leader in 1805 he refused to perform
with the more junior Shikan. The two seem to have had conflicting
personalities and styles, with Shikan playing a complete range of
roles and Rikan putting more emphasis on realistic character
portrayal.

At the end of
1819 Rikan sent a formal letter of complaint to Shikan and his
producer. In it he argued that Shikan's outlandish
showmanship, and the way he deliberately created a frenzy among his
fans, was damaging Rikan's own success. He accused Zenbei,
Shikan's producer, of being obsessed with profit and
claimed that the market had been flooded with Shikan-brand
products. The letter gave the impression that Rikan, a relatively
conservative actor at the peak of his career, saw Shikan as
obsessed with promoting his own career to the detriment of Rikan
and Osaka Kabuki as a
whole.

Shikan and Zenbei
both responded, apologizing profusely and professing their
innocence. Shikan cleverly defended himself and deflected
Rikan's criticisms but at the same time seemed to be
challenging him. The rivalry between the pair inspired a flood of
actor prints, books and
albums.

This print shows
the two actors in an imagined 'neck-tugging'
contest. Both are dressed in role, with Shikan as Shakkyô, the Lion
Dancer, and Rikan as Akizuki Daizen. The inscriptions are cries of
encouragement from their fans, such as 'Ready, steady,
go!'. Calls from fans for the superstars to perform
together increased in intensity and they finally agreed in 1821.
However, Rikan died suddenly before the performance could go
ahead.